[B-Greek] Colossians 1:4 Double Accusatives?
Carl W. Conrad
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Tue May 27 06:27:25 EDT 2003
At 12:24 AM -0400 5/27/03, William E. Turner Jr. wrote:
>B-Greek:
>
>I am fresh out of second year Greek and I am working through Colossians
>with the hopes of translation and diagramming. My questions deal with
>Colossians 1:4.
It would help to have the whole verse transcribed for the sake of context:
... AKOUSANTES THN PISTIN hUMWN EN CRISTWi IHSOU KAI THN AGAPHN hHN ECETE
EIS PANTAS TOUS hAGIOUS ...
>First, is THN PISTIN and THN AGAPHN a double accusative of the participle
>AKOUSANTES?
Both are objects of the participle AKOUSANTES, but the term "double
accusative" usually is used the two accusatives are both part of the same
predicate expression, e.g., ERWTHSAMEN AUTOUS TA ERWTHMATA TAUTA, "we asked
them these questions"--an accusative of the person and an accusative of the
thing.
>Secondly, in regards to THN AGAPHN hHN ECETE is this another double
>accusative with THN AGAPHN functioning as the object and then hHN
>functioning as the complement or should it be seen as a predicate
>accusative? Wallace seems to rule out a predicate accusative since he
>states that they must be joined by either an equative participle or
>infinitive (190-192). Or am I completely wrong on both accounts? In
>short, how does this passage function syntactically?
In this instance the accusative hHN of the relative pronoun functions as
object of the verb ECETE in a subordinate relative clause, while THN AGAPHN
is object of the participle AKOUSANTES.
>Lastly, in determining the syntax of various passages is there any tool
>which I would be able to reference in comparing notes and checking my
>choices (often guesses) of the syntax? I am looking for something more
>comprehensive than Wallace's GGBB. Besides parsing help is this what
>Zerwick and Grosvenor provides?
I think what you need to do first (until you recognize without thinking how
the clauses fit together) is to analyze sentences at the clause level and
relate them to each other. You may find it helpful to diagram sentences or
to survey some of the diagramming materials available on-line; at any rate,
distinguishing clauses and key elements of the subjects and predicates at
the clause level has to be, I think, the first step. Others may have some
more specific advice to offer.
--
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/
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